[Correction: Georgetown water customers with addresses ending in an odd number water on Tuesdays and Saturdays, not on Thursdays.]

September and October brought with them the first sustained rainfall Austin-area cities had received in several months. For customers who rely on Lake Georgetown as their primary source of water, however, the temporary respite from the dry weather was too little and too late to offset the drought conditions that engulfed Central Texas during the summer.

Specifically, the cities of Georgetown and Round Rock, as well as the Chisholm Trail Special Utility District and Brushy Creek Municipal Utility District, were forced Oct. 14 to enact mandatory twice-per-week watering restrictions as a result of the dwindling lake levels. The watering mandates were a response to letters sent out Oct. 2 from the Brazos River Authority directing Lake Georgetown water users to reduce consumption by 10 percent compared with the previous year.

"We have gotten these intermittent rainfall events that have greened everything up and helped cool things off and helped everyone's lawn look better, but we aren't really gaining elevation in the lake," said John Hofmann, BRA Central/Lower Basin manager. "We have made it through the hottest part of the summer, and things are not noticeably improving. Hopefully we will get our fall rainfall events and we will gain some [lake] elevation, and we will reassess."

For Georgetown and Chisholm Trail SUD water customers, the restrictions mean watering lawns with automated sprinklers is restricted to assigned days. Exceptions, however, are made for car wash and plant nursery businesses, filling pools and washing vehicles.

Although parts of Williamson County received significant amounts of rainfall in October, the storm systems dropped less than 5 inches of water into Lake Georgetown. In fact, despite several days of rain in October, the lake's level rose by less than half a foot during that time. According to data recorded by the U.S. Geological Service, on Nov. 5 the lake's level sat at 773.75 feet above sea level—or approximately 50 percent of its capacity.

The lake's water level has been in decline since early March, when its water elevation sat at 779 feet above sea level.

"The restrictions were put in place due to the continued drought conditions [and] the levels of Lake Georgetown and Lake Stillhouse," Georgetown Utility Manager Glenn Dishong said, adding that the restrictions will remain in place until those conditions improve.

"The restrictions will depend upon rains, the impact of such rain to the lake levels and the lifting of the Stage 2 drought warning by the BRA," he said.

Compounding the lack of rainfall has been the failure of two of the four pumps that feed Lake Georgetown with water from the much larger Lake Stillhouse Hollow near Belton. When all of the pumps are online, the BRA can feed up to 42 million gallons per day of additional water into Lake Georgetown. With half of the pumps currently disabled, however, the lake is unable to keep up with the water being drawn from it.

"Our pipeline is moving about 25 million gallons per day [into Lake Georgetown]," Hoffman said. "Our customers out of Lake Georgetown are pulling anywhere from 36 [million] to 46 million gallons a day out of the lake—so we just can't keep up."

Additional reporting by Beth Wade